Timehost: Welcome to the TIME Auditorium this afternoon. Our guest
today is Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo! (a company that certainly
needs no introduction for those of you here today!).
Jerry Yang: Hello!
Timehost: Mr. Yang was on the cover of TIME magazine last week -- as
part of a story about the future of the internet -- and, in particular --
commerce on the internet. And although this is kind of obvious, we need to
point out that very chat you're participating in now is the result of a chat
partnership between Yahoo! Chat and TIME Online. Welcome! Let's take the
first question from online.
Hutchinson_98 asks: Why did you start Yahoo?
Jerry Yang: David Filo and I started Yahoo! when we were doing our
Ph.D's at Stanford University. For those of you who've done any kinds of thesis
work, it's pretty laborious and tedious, to say the least, so at the beginning
of 1994, we started to procrastinate and spend a lot of time on the newly
emerged "web". We started putting together a "hotlist" of favorite sites
from David and myself, and we called it "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide
Web" Before we knew it, people from all over the world were using this
database that we created. In June 1994, while it is still our hobby, we
renamed it "yahoo" to stand for "yet another hierarchical officious
oracle".
Enigmahaven asks: Do you see the Internet being as versatile and
popular as TV?
Jerry Yang: I think it's very different from TV in many ways. First
and foremost, the internet is unique since it is THE only interactive
medium -- and that's important because from a content, service, and
communications perspective, we web folks try to take advantage of that
interactivity. And it is because of the interactivity (which allows for real
time data, communication, CHATS, etc.), that the web has become so popular. So I really try not to think ourselves like TV. Rather
it is a new and possibly complementary medium.
Glwaprez asks: Umm, it's too easy to get lost when you advertise on
the net .. is it going to get easier?
Jerry Yang: It's a good question. Advertising on the internet is
still very much in the beginning stages. I think there are a lot of things
happening that are making it better for both advertisers and consumers. First of all, the technology is improving all the time. There is a tremendous
amount of work being done for making multimedia technology more attractive,
and making the advertising more compelling. Secondly, there is enough work
being done now to make sure that users can potentially see ads that are
really relevant to them, rather than feeling like they are being intruded on and
annoyed. Lastly, we are working to make sure that the advertisers
continue to get strong accountability and results from their efforts on this
interactive medium.
Voicex asks: Jerry, do you believe the Internet will change the way
consumers purchase their everyday products?
Jerry Yang: I think it already has. For example, take stock quotes and stock brokerage on the
web -- that's a phenomenon that's only possible because of the wide accessibility and
realtime nature of the web. Similarly, people are starting to plan their travel, buy
their music, and purchase tickets and event information from the web. I believe that as different consumer-oriented sectors
start to find the web as a unique way to reach their customers, more and
more capabilities will be enabled, and therefore you and I will be able to
buy more and more stuff through the web.
Metalmeister asks: Why and how do you keep Yahoo! a free service?
Jerry Yang: Hi, Metalmeister - I like that name (I think)... Let's see
- David and I and the rest of the Yahoos here really believe that the
internet should remain as free as possible. At the same time we are a business and have fiscal
responsibilities. If you look at the history of media, the "free media"
like radio and television have great programming and yet they are free. Our purpose/goal is the same, to keep the internet free to
the users and make the business part work by finding sponsors and
advertisers who want to reach our audience. I think it is one of the keys to keep improving the
usefulness of the web and make sure that as many people as possible can use
it and derive value from it.
Enigmahaven asks: How will the Millennium bug affect the Internet or
even Yahoo!
Jerry Yang: The millennium bug? Hmm... o be realistic, I really don't know the impact - it could
have relatively little impact since most of the infrastructure, software,
and hardware that the web links to is relatively new in that they were
designed in the last few years. The problem may come in web services that
link to large, older mainframes that could suffer from the problem. But I
hope that major providers of web and internet services are looking into it to
make sure nothing breaks, much like yahoo is doing.
Yves_Durivage asks: Yahoo! does not have a technological advantage.
How will you stay ahead of competitors?
Jerry Yang: Technology is an important component of what we do - but
our real competitive advantage is to apply technology to become the best
web-based communication, content, and commerce service. Our model is much
more like a media model, rather than a technology company
Radioactv asks: Will there ever be a Yahoo! browser?
Jerry Yang: We like to put our focus on good services that we can
bring through the web, and there are good competitive browser products out
there already. We do have little downloadable utilities like (plug
coming...) Yahoo! pager and Yahoo! ticker, which aren't browsers but rather
function-specific clients that allow you to get better access to the info on
the web.
Spirit_in_black asks: How long does it take for a web site submitted
to yahoo to get in the directory?
Jerry Yang: It depends, spirit_in_black. What happens is that we do
get a lot more submissions than we can handle, so the "surfers" do everything
they can to get to the sites that they believe will add the most to the
existing Yahoo! tree. We try to make sure we review people's sites, but again,
it is up to the surfers to decide (much like editors do) if and where they
belong.
Stan87 asks: Will Yahoo be involved in the development of internet2?
Jerry Yang: Currently we are not involved, but I think as the plans for
the infrastructure piece reach a point where they need to consider what kind
of "next generation" web services need to be developed, I believe yahoo can
provide a lot of good input.
Timehost: We're chatting with Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
Actually, I hear that's not your official title, though?
Jerry Yang: No... it's actually "chief yahoo."
Solar_3000 asks: Jerry, did you expect yahoo to grow so rapidly and
become one of the largest sites on the internet?
Jerry Yang: Of course we didn't. You have to realize when David and I
were doing this it was just for fun. We never thought it would even become
a business. A lot of the credit goes to the smart and great people that have
since joined Yahoo!, because they took it upon themselves to make Yahoo! great.
Joxman asks: How much will devices like the cable model redefine the
internet and how content is presented?
Jerry Yang: Great question. There's a lot of talk about different end devices (like
TV., PC, pda, cell phones, etc.) and a lot of discussion about bandwidth
(narrowband, wideband, broadband). I think as there are more and more options
(priced affordably and rolled out enough), there will be an impact on how
the internet is used, as well as how services get designed. We hope that
the internet becomes even more affordable and more ubiquitous over time, and
our mission at Yahoo! is to continue to keep our services available AND
useful on all these platforms.
Sirgarak asks: What is yahoo's position on the Justice Department
case with Microsoft?
Jerry Yang: We are really not involved in the case. However, we hope
whatever Microsoft and the government do, they don't slow down the tremendous momentum that the
internet industry, and the hi-tech industries have -- they are making a difference in
the economy today.
RedBacchus asks: Jerry, Does Yahoo! plan to invest more energy in the
"Push" ideal of specifically tech news, stock, and other forms of finance in
the near future?
Jerry Yang: Hi, Redbacchus, I hope you are drinking some good red
wine. I don't think we think of it as "push" necessarily, but we
do think of it as notification, as people eventually do want to have a lot of
their information delivered to them, whether it's to their email, their
pager, their instant messenger, or their cell phone. We are trying to look at this issue more broadly and
trying to address it across the different medium and platforms, so it
becomes as ubiquitiously adopted as possible.
Endless asks: What is this Turbo Yahoo thing y'all were talking about
on the phone at the quarterly meeting the other day?
Jerry Yang: It's not something formal we've announced it - and it's
really just an internal way to refer to the Yahoo as devices and bandwidths
change. When it becomes a real product, we'll definitely be showing it off.
Ctoburen asks: Jerry, what are Yahoo's plans to compete with AOL for
market share?
Jerry Yang: I think Yahoo! is very different from AOL, in that we don't
have subscribers. In fact many AOL users use Yahoo! when they go on the
internet. Our goal has always been, and continues, to be a place to
go, no matter how you get on the internet. We've notice we have a huge
audience during the daytime, and when people are at work. That's because the
bandwidth and access to internet is much easier during the day time. A lot
of our services are geared towards these kind of audiences. One last thing
on this: we are very much believers that the web is an open environment, and
we need to make sure that people can find all kinds of different stuff
through Yahoo!, and not necessarily keeping people within Yahoo!
Billionacres asks: Can a couple of folks in a garage in 1998 still
start a great Internet company? What are your ideas on this?
Jerry Yang: Do you really have a billionacres of something? Let's see,
I think that it's always possible to have a great company if you have great
ideas. I will say that since the web has become more commercialized, it
also takes some good financial resources to build a great business, but as
I always say, you have to have the idea first.
Fvjohnson asks: Any plans to do a daily net broadcast show?
Jerry Yang: Now we have our "broadcast" primarily through chat -
through events much like this one. If you are talking about it in the TV
sense, we don't have any plans until the bandwidths improve.
BurtKocain asks: Jerry, how many people are users of yahoo?
Jerry Yang: We estimate that over 40 million people worldwide use
Yahoo! in a 30 day period, and in June, we averaged 115 million pageviews
served per day.
Bmilty asks: What are your favorite things to do when you aren't
working?
Jerry Yang: Sleeping.
Adrian asks: Paint a picture of the internet ten years from now, and
yahoo's role in it. Your guess?
Jerry Yang: Let's see - it's hard to say. My guess that no matter
what, interactive media is here to stay. People will refer to it much less as a destination, rather
people will use it more like they do phones and TV. I hope that the internet will get to become ubiquitous
and affordable, and if that's achieved, I think it'll be a big part of
people's lives - for the better.
Blueskyzs asks: Can you give us any ideas of what improvements will
be made to the Yahoo pager, e-mail or chat?
Jerry Yang: Yes - we will keep adding features to all these products.
More specifically, we will look to integrate them better with other Yahoo!
products including our contents (like news, financial news, sports), as well
as integrating them with each other.
Bmilty asks: Who do you admire most in the business world?
Jerry Yang: Well, Bill, there are a few people that I admire. I look at people who've gone through a lot of adversity and
are still great leaders in their fields. For example, in the tech world, Andy Grove has been a very
strong person that has built a tremendous business also. I think folks like
Mike Bloomberg and Michael Dell are folks that I admire a lot.
KStky asks: Hey Jerry, are you ever going back to finish your Ph.D?
Jerry Yang: Hey kstky, probably not the same Ph.D. I was doing since
it's now obsolete. But who knows? Being in school was very fun and maybe
someday I'll go back to do something else!
Glwaprez asks: What's planned for 99'?
Jerry Yang: We worry about staying competitive as well as continue to
come up with new things. What I can say is that look for Yahoo! to continue
to push the envelope on what we can offer for free, as well as a continue
focus to develop the Yahoo! set of services around the world.
Timehost: I know you've got to run, but before we go, any closing
thoughts?
Jerry Yang: I really appreciate TIME magazine and TIME Online for doing
this with me - I have to say I was a bit shocked to see myself on the
cover. It's really not my style since Yahoo! is something built by
a lot more people than just me, but I'm just glad they didn't use my real
body - the one they used is a lot better than mine! Thanks a lot.
Timehost: Thank you very much for joining us! We love chatting on
Yahoo!
Jerry Yang: yahoo!
